Lenny Gonzalez The promise of technology in the pursuit of learning is vast — and so are the profits. The SIIA valued the ed-tech market at $7.5 billion. With daily launches of new products promising to solve all manner of problems — from managing classrooms to engaging bored students with interactive content to capturing and … Continue reading What’s Worth Investing In? How to Decide What Technology You Need →

Today is Banned Website Awareness Day, and all across the country, educators are doing their part to raise awareness of how overly restrictive blocking of educational websites affects student learning. The dialogue around filtering must also include bring-your-own-device policies, appropriate use of social media in schools, and overall responsible use of technology in school. Each … Continue reading What To Do If Your School Bans Useful Websites →

Flickr: Spacepleb It’s been roughly two months since the launch of the Department of Education’s Digital Promise, and though it’s still very early in the process, a few pointed goals are emerging. The main premise behind Digital Promise is to serve as a national center for research to spur innovation that will improve learning through … Continue reading Three Goals to Spark Innovation and Collaboration →

Flickr:CrunchyFootsteps Public education is, by its very nature, tangled with policy, dependent on rules and regulations set by federal, state, and district mandates. What most students do in school at any given moment has been prescribed by legislation passed years before they — or their parents — entered kindergarten. But things are changing — and … Continue reading School Will Change, With or Without Following Rules →

Larry Gonzalez I’m at a small gathering of education journalists, policymakers and school leaders today, and in attendance is the Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology, Karen Cator. Cator told me that teachers continue to thank her for outlining these important clarifications about schools blocking access to Web sites. For those who haven’t seen … Continue reading Dispelling Myths About Blocked Websites in Schools →

“Now is the time,” said Karen Cator, director of education technology at the Department of Education. “We’re at this incredible inflection point as we go from print to digital.” Cator enumerated the ways in which the D.O.E. is helping to make the shift between the print and digital world at the ISTE conference yesterday. 1. … Continue reading Four New Initiatives from the Department of Education →

In the final post of the series of interviews, Department of Education’s Karen Cator discusses how the National Education Technology Plan addresses the achievement gap and how the plan squares with Race to the Top. – How is the achievement gap addressed in the National Education Technology Plan? How can technology bring the best education for … Continue reading Zeroing in on the Achievement Gap →

flickr:katerha In the third installment of my interview with Karen Cator, Director of Educational Technology at the Department of Education, we talk about how transparency in the digital age can help to motivate the education community to push for progress. I’ve heard a lot of frustration from the education community about decision-makers either not showing … Continue reading How to Push for Progress? The Key is Tranparency →

Continuing my conversation with the Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology Karen Cator, we talk about how schools can find inventive ways of allotting money for tech tools. What’s your position on creative reallocation of funds in order to pull schools and districts into the 21st century? We’re going to have to figure out … Continue reading Karen Cator: Schools Should Get Creative With Spending →

Last month, the Department of Education released its 124-page, information-packed National Education Technology Plan. I spoke with Karen Cator, the Director of the Office of Educational Technology, about the reality of implementing some of these guidlines into the existing public education system. Her answers were direct, forthright, and sensible. It’s apparent that the authors spent … Continue reading The DOE’s Guide to Allowing Online Access in Schools →